The June Meeting of Council has accepted staff's recommendation to no longer proceed with a Planning Proposal to rezone land on the western side of Dido St for residential development.

It was proposed for the 1ha site (a portion of a larger block) to be rezoned from RU2 Rural Landscape to R2 Low Density and R5 Large Lot residential, resulting in six lots.

The Planning Proposal was originally endorsed to proceed for a Gateway Determination in August 2019, as it had similar characteristics to an adjoining lot that had already been given a Gateway Determination.

However in December 2020 the latter Proposal was dropped due to bushfire constraints.

This resulted in the strategic merit of the remaining proposal needing to be assessed as a stand alone project, outside of the urban expansion area and opposed by residents concerned about access, traffic and flooding.

The staff report concluded, "It is now the view of staff that this Planning Proposal no longer satisfies the Strategic Merit test and should therefore no longer proceed."

The land from Jamberoo Road

The owner of the land, Tony Scopelitti, is disappointed but philosophical about the outcome, which he describes as coming out of the blue.

"Up until May, everything was running well, as we had a green light from the RFS," he says.

"I have nothing against council. They have a job to do. But I would have liked to have had a bit more time to prepare and understand why the decision changed in the last couple of weeks of a three year process that cost us over $50,000. We only had four business days' notice of the change of heart."

He is happy for the concession the councillors made to encourage him to apply for a building entitlement on his land.

"I thank them for their consideration, as I can still push on to retire to Kiama."

At the same meeting, a Planning Proposal to rezone part of a 3.12 ha of land on Henry Parkes Drive, Kiama Downs, from E2 Environmental Conservation to R2 Low Density Residential was endorsed and the necessary changes will now be made to the Local Environment Plan. 

The land on Henry Parkes Drive

This site had been identified in the Kiama Urban Strategy, and then the Local Strategic Planning Statement, as being suitable for residential development.